Just this morning, robotic process automation (RPA) firm Blue Prism announced enhancements to its platform.
A little later, the company, which went public on the London Stock
Exchange in 2016, announced it was raising £100 million (approximately
$130 million) by issuing new stock. The announcement comes after reporting significant losses in its most recent fiscal year, which ended in October.

The
company indicated it plans to sell the new shares on the public market,
and that they will be made available to new and existing shareholders,
including company managers and directors.

RPA Automation

CEO Alastair Bathgate
attempted to put the announcement in the best possible light. “The
outcome of this placing, which builds on another year of significant
progress for the company, highlights the meteoric growth opportunity
with RPA and intelligent automation,” he said in a statement.

While the company’s revenue more than doubled last fiscal year, from £24.5 million (approximately $32 million) in 2017 to £55.2 million (approximately $72 million) in 2018, losses also increased dramatically, from £10.1 million (approximately $13 million) in 2017 to £26.0 million (approximately $34 million), according to reports.

The move, which requires shareholder approval, will be used to push the company’s plans, outlined in a TechCrunch article earlier this morning, to begin enhancing the platform with help from partners, a move the company hopes will propel it into the future.

Today’s
announcement included a new AI engine, an updated marketplace where
companies can share Blue Prism extensions and a new lab, where the
company plans to work on AI innovation in-house.

Bathgate isn’t wrong about the market opportunity. Investors have been pouring big bucks into this market for the last couple of years. As we noted, in this morning’s article, “UIPath, a NYC RPA company has raised almost $450 million. Its most recent round in September was for $225 million on a $3 billion valuation. Automation Anywhere, a San Jose Robotic Process Automation (RPA) startup, has raised $550 million including an enormous $300 million investment from SoftBank in November on a valuation of $2.6 billion.”